Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future

18 DemandThe growing interest in personal identity and sense ofplace is attracting more and more people to explore theirheritage and frequently encouraging them to create theirown archival resources that might then add to our archivalheritage.We have been impressed by the enjoyment and inspirationthat people have gained from their discoveries: fromlearning about themselves, their past and their placewithin the wider community; of the pride in creating andmaintaining collections without thought to cost or timeinvolved. We have met and heard of many people whoselives have been changed for the better by the experience.This exploration of personal history and identity should bethe right of every citizen.The increasing global interest in local and family historyhas already been cited and there is no doubt that moreand more people will seek the means to learn more aboutthemselves, their families and their homes. It is now aphenomenon reflected in the broadcast and print mediaand in the explosion of dedicated web-sites. We have beenimpressed by the social impact made by some of thecommunity archives that we have seen and we believethat there is a great opportunity to encourage this sort ofactivity. Joining together people with shared interests,identities or histories can be empowering, can help themto gain confidence in their own identities and can supportcitizenship where the people are disenfranchised ordisadvantaged in some way.There is thus current demand that many archives canhardly meet, an ever-expanding list of priorities for archiveservices, growing demand from active groups andindividuals and a latent demand of unknown (but large)proportions that could, if met, help to achieve keygovernment targets for social inclusion and learning.SupplyPublic archives are well-established through the workof the national archive services, local authority-run recordoffices, local studies libraries, universities and furthereducation institutions, and the records managementservices of public organisations. Legislation lays statutoryobligations upon some archives although in most casesrecord-keeping continues to be a voluntary commitmentrather than a duty. It is clear that the lack of a commonstatutory framework militates against consistency acrossthe country especially in terms of the level of investmentmade by local authorities. As a result, many collectionsare not adequately catalogued to make them accessible;many premises are not appropriate for their current needs;higher levels of demand could not be satisfied withoutadditional resources and the weaker services are not wellplaced to respond to the challenging opportunities set outin this report.Private archival collections are held by countlessindividuals, societies and organisations. There is alsothe growth in moving image, sound and photographicarchives, many operating as commercial enterprises.The diversity and the priorities of private interest producea complex mixture that will not lend itself to a simple setof actions for greater co-ordination or for sharing. Indeed,where commercial or self-interest is concerned it may bequite inappropriate to expect any form of public access.On the other hand, many private archives provide publicaccess to parts of their collections, which may provideopportunities to develop further controlled access tonon-sensitive items or to develop materials to supporta range of learning and social outcomes.Funding of archives varies across this landscape. Majorpublic funders of services are local authorities, universities,national archive institutions (funded by central anddevolved governments) and the Lottery distributors.We believe that to realise the Task Force vision archiveswill require significant and sustained investment in thelonger term. If the public sector is constrained by resourcesthe private sector shares the common need for investmentto ensure that collections of potential public interest are